My Husband Was Clearly a Paladin
Chapter 54
“You’ve arrived.”
As Irene entered, Michael, who had been sitting in a chair, stood up to greet her.
“I’m sorry I’m late.”
“Not at all. I should have guided you here personally, but I had things to prepare and couldn’t make it out to meet you.”
Saying so, he offered Irene a seat.
Irene carefully sat down on a rugged wooden chair.
‘So this is where Michael stays.’
The sign on the door before entering had said ‘Prayer Room,’ but it seemed a few more pieces of furniture had been brought in for his living quarters.
Because of that, even though it was his lodging, the room felt quite desolate.
‘Is he really living here? Why are there so few belongings?’
She had heard that people of the Temple could only own as many items as would fit in a single bag from birth until death.
When she first heard that, she wondered if such a thing was even possible, but looking at his room now, it was clearly no exaggeration.
An Order uniform hanging on the wall.
Old bedding atop a worn, simple wooden bed.
Aside from those, the only other visible items were paper and a pen on the table.
Truly, even if one gathered every single thing in this room, it probably wouldn’t fill half a bag, let alone a whole one.
Irene realized once again just how upright and frugal a person he was.
Even for a Holy Knight, to have such a complete lack of possessiveness.
‘I wonder if Michael has ever wanted to own something.’
She didn’t know what it might be, but if there was such a thing, she wanted to give it to him as a gift someday.
‘Surprisingly, I don’t see anything related to the Temple.’
Since he was a Holy Knight, she expected to see scriptures or a holy statue, but no trace of the deity was visible anywhere in his room.
In the meantime, he brought out some tea.
It tasted exactly like the tea she had drunk at the Temple long ago when she had her purification power verified as a child.
It seemed the Temple used the same tea for everyone.
‘I should bring him some of the tea from my room later.’
As his pair, she was enjoying luxuries comparable to a princess, while Michael, who deserved all of that, was drinking tea that tasted like grass.
Swallowing her guilt, Irene took another sip of the tea he offered.
As the warm tea went down her throat, her body, which had been tense from being in an unfamiliar place, relaxed slightly.
Irene set down her teacup and spoke.
“Even if you had come to meet me, I would have been late. Something happened before I came.”
“What happened?”
Irene briefly explained the situation with the Princess.
No sign of surprise appeared on Michael’s face as he listened. He, too, had been expecting it.
“I see.”
“Yes, so the raid on this Distortion Dungeon has become very important.”
She had intended to give him a brief explanation and say no more.
“Honestly, I thought they’d at least agonize over it for a few days… but from what I heard, it seems some of the people who participated in the first raid have already switched back. Even if they’re free to come and go, how can they change their stance again so soon after receiving the profits from the Invisibility Rings?”
Strangely, Irene found herself venting frustrations to him that she hadn’t even shared with Reina.
“Michael worked so hard to teach them, I wonder if they even feel grateful…”
After grumbling for a while, Irene snapped out of it when she noticed his gaze fixed intently on her.
“I’m sorry, I was complaining without realizing it.”
“Not at all. I am simply happy that you think of it that way.”
Happy? This wasn’t a confession, and a Holy Knight shouldn’t have an obligation to listen to someone else’s grievances.
Perhaps her confusion showed on her face. He answered Irene, who still wore a puzzled expression.
“I am very happy because it is the first time I have heard what you are usually thinking, Irene.”
“Is… that so?”
Now that she heard him say it, he was right.
At first, even meeting him was uncomfortable, so there had been no real conversation beyond greetings and necessary words.
It had been the same even as more time passed.
Memories of the past still made Irene shrink back, and she had to carefully weigh every word she spoke to him.
It had certainly been that way, so when exactly did she start pouring out thoughts to him that she couldn’t even tell others?
In the past, she would have definitely checked his reaction before speaking and worried several times if what she was about to say would offend him.
But not this time.
Without weighing any of that, she was blurting out her inner thoughts as naturally as if he were an old friend.
As she stood dazed by this new realization, he added with a faint smile.
“I am a formally ordained knight, so if you have any other frustrating matters, please feel free to speak of them at any time. If you are comfortable with me, I will always be the ears that listen to your story.”
It was a dignified remark, as usual. In the past, she would have just acknowledged it and moved on, but for some reason, this time she felt a sense of reassurance deep in her heart.
Feeling a tickle in her chest, a bashful Irene hurried to bring up the main point.
“By the way, what are we doing starting today?”
And why did he ask her to come to the Temple?
She had no idea what he intended to do here for two hours.
“I will show you now. This way.”
He stood up and guided Irene through a different door than the one they had entered.
A moment later.
“What is this?”
Irene stood blankly, holding a short wooden practice sword in her hand.
* * *
“You must strike down faster.”
“Even… faster than… now?”
Irene panted as she swung the wooden sword in her hand.
Swinging a wooden sword required much more strength in her arms and legs than she had expected.
In the end, after only a few more minutes, Irene was drenched in sweat and exhausted.
As if he had expected this, Michael handed her a dry towel and a water bottle filled with cool water.
“I didn’t know you would prepare something so thorough…”
Irene muttered in a dying voice.
He had told her to come to his place for two hours a day, and she had wondered what on earth he was planning.
‘To think he’d make me practice swordsmanship.’
It wasn’t just swordsmanship. He said he intended to teach her basic self-defense as well.
“Will this really be of any help…?”
It was her first time moving her body so intensely in her life, so groans escaped her lips even while she was just sitting still.
“It is to prepare for any eventuality.”
“An eventuality?”
“One never knows what will happen in a dungeon, so it is best to be fully prepared. And I heard that Purifiers originally undergo basic physical training as well.”
“That’s true, but…”
The knights are the ones who fight, but the Purifier must move with the knight.
Therefore, basic physical training was necessary. However, that was a story for pairs where both had to move desperately.
In cases where the knight was overwhelmingly strong, or the Purifier’s ability was overwhelmingly high, there was no need to train the body to such an extent.
‘That’s why Cynthia runs every morning, but Reina doesn’t do it at all.’
Naturally, since Michael was overwhelmingly strong, Irene didn’t particularly need to have good physical abilities.
Even if she lay down and slept in a corner of the dungeon, as long as her pair was Michael, she wouldn’t get hurt.
So why was he suddenly making her do this?
‘Whatever the reason, I feel like I’m going to die…’
To think she had to do this for two hours every day under his guidance.
He was someone who usually respected her wishes, but not today.
“Please stand up. You still have much to learn.”
“I know. I’ll get up. So, just a moment…”
Irene tried to use the wooden sword in her hand to push herself off the ground, but her body wobbled and she slumped back down.
Apparently, a dagger-length wooden sword was not a suitable length to be used as a cane.
“Why are we practicing with a dagger instead of a longsword?”
“With your current weak body, you cannot lift something that long. Even if you took it with you, it would only be a heavy burden, and you wouldn’t be able to use it properly in a situation where you needed it. So, it is faster and better to learn the dagger, which is not difficult to handle.”
After explaining, he brought over his own sword, which had been leaning in a corner, and showed it to Irene.
“Would you like to try holding it?”
“Is it okay for me to hold it?”
She had heard that for knights, a sword was more important than anything else. So much so that even family members like parents and siblings, let alone comrades they valued like their own lives, were not allowed to touch it recklessly.
Was it okay for a layperson like her to touch such a thing?
“Of course. If not you, then who else could hold this?”
Michael drew the sword from its scabbard and placed the hilt in Irene’s hand.
“It is heavy, so you must put strength into your hand.”
Speaking like a rather strict instructor, his hand gripped Irene’s hand as it held the sword, covering it completely.
